Jeremiah ZA, Mordi A. Evaluation of the clinical utility of maternal alloantibody screening as a surrogate to antiglobulin crossmatch procedures in resource limited settings. International Journal of Blood Transfusion and Immunohematology 2011;1:1-6.

Abstract

Aims:
In resource limited settings, cross matching procedures are usually limited to the conventional antiglobulin technique. Pre-transfusion screening for red cell alloantibodies are not carried out routinely. The study was aimed at evaluating the usefulness of antibody screening as a surrogate to antiglobulin crossmatch procedure.
Methods:
A total 250 pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic of the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH), Port Harcourt were screened for the presence of red cell alloantibodies using DiaMed screening and panel cells (DiaCell and DiaPanels).
Results:
Alloantibodies detected were anti-E (1.2%), anti-K (0.8%), anti-C (0.4%) and anti-Jsb (0.4%). The overall prevalence rate of red cell allo - antibodies was 4.8%. A blind crossmatch performed using the serum of the patients on donor's cells revealed the following resultsincompatible 5 (2.0%) and 254 (98.0%) compatible. Taking incompatible results as positive and compatible as negative, the performance indices of the antibody screening procedure was obtained as follows: sensitivity (41.6%), specificity (100%), PPV (100%), NPV (97.1%), Efficiency (48.6%). Prevalence (4.8%) and percentage safety (41 .6%). The study did not show the type and screen to reach the expected safety level of 99.0%. Its usefulness was however shown through the detection of unexpected antibodies in 4.8% of the subjects.
Conclusions:
We concluded that with a high specificity obtained, the detection and identification of these antibodies would help select blood in advance for patients undergoing surgery in order to reduce the incidence of haemolytic transfusion reactions.

Author Contributions:
Zaccheaus Awortu Jeremiah - substantially contributed to conception and design, acquisition of data , drafting the article, revising it critically for important intellectual content and final approval of the version to be published
Augustina Mordi - contributed tto conception and design, analysis and interpretation of data and final approval of the version to be published

Guarantor of submission:
The corresponding author is the guarantor of submission.